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World business quick take

■China
Shanghai Land seeks help
Shanghai Land Holdings Ltd, a developer controlled by a tycoon under investi-gation for fraud, placed itself in court receivership, citing 650 million yuan (US$79 million) in "unortho-dox loans" made by two subsidiaries. China's deten-tion of Zhou Zhengyi (周正毅), ranked the nation's 11th richest businessman by Forbes, and the investiga-tion of his wife Mao Yuping (毛玉萍) by Hong Kong's Independent Commission Against Corruption pose "damaging risk to the busi-ness of the group," the company said in a state-ment. Zhou is the second Forbes-list entrepreneur linked to property-related fraud in eight months as China tries to clean up bad loans at state-owned banks and defuse an oversupply of real-estate projects.

■ Software
Oracle still wants rival
Business software maker Oracle Corp pressed ahead with its US$5.1 billion hostile bid for rival People-Soft Inc, brushing aside legal threats to kill the deal and investor pressure for a better offer. Oracle expects PeopleSoft to sue it over the bid, according to a letter Oracle chairman Larry Ellison sent the company. Oracle released the letter, which restated Ellison's desire to meet with People-Soft president Craig Con-way, who has already said he can't envision PeopleSoft accepting the US$16-per-share offer. Conway -- a former Oracle executive who worked for Ellison for eight years -- has likened his old boss to Genghis Khan. In his letter, Ellison said the personal attacks and Monday's legal threat "raise the concern that you have taken a negative position ... before you and the PeopleSoft board have taken the time required to consider the offer."

■ Trade
China, HK seek FTA
China and Hong Kong are hoping to wrap up a free trade agreement (FTA) by the end of this month, an official said yesterday. China and Hong Kong are treated as separate customs territories, making it diffi-cult for the territory to take full advantage of its close trade and commercial ties with China. The pact is known as the Mainland/Hong Kong Closer Econo-mic Partnership Arrange-ment. It would cover trade in goods and services as well as trade facilitation including customs coopera-tion and e-commerce businesses, said Albert Hui, a spokesman for the Com-merce, Industry and Tech-nology Bureau. Talks on an agreement began in January last year. Hui declined to give further details and it was unclear when the agreement would take effect.

■ Airlines
US urges ticketing change
Rules governing computer reservation systems for airline tickets should be eased because they don't result in lower price, the US Justice Department said on Monday. The Transportation Department proposed last November changing the rules for the four US com-puter reservation systems used by travel agents so all airlines won't have to parti-cipate in all four systems. "Many of the regulations, which have been in effect for nearly 20 years, have failed to make the CRS [computer reservation sys-tems] more competitive, may have imposed costs of their own on consumers, and should not be extended,'' the Justice Department said. It recommended dropping a requirement that computer-reservation systems charge all airlines the same price for the same services.

Agencies
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